Tokyo police installed cellphone jammers at five unmanned ATM locations in the capital to prevent “refund scams,” a growing scourge perpetrated by con artists posing as government or other officials.

The Metropolitan Police Department is the first police force in Japan to have taken such measures. It plans to install additional cellphone jammers and urge financial institutions to introduce similar contraptions to thwart the fraudsters.

The scam starts with a phone call to the target and ends at an automated teller machine.

The con artists usually pretend to be local government officials or tax office workers who say they will be returning overpaid medical expenses or tax.

The victims are talked into going to an ATM, where the scammers use cellphones to relay rapid-fire and complicated instructions that cause the victim to send money to a bank account held by the scam artists.

The number of refund scam cases recognized in Tokyo rose tenfold over five years to 1,178 in 2019, while the financial losses increased 15 times to 1.679 billion yen ($16.2 million). The 2019 numbers in the capital accounted for around half of the totals across Japan.

For the first nine months of 2020, 559 refund scam cases were recognized in Tokyo, with total damage reaching 994.2 million yen.

Around 70 percent of the scams involve unmanned ATM sections, MPD officials said.

A Tokyo woman in her 40s, who narrowly escaped a refund scam in February, said she welcomes a spread of cellphone jammers.

“People wouldn’t have to experience the sort of things I went through if cellphones were to be rendered unusable,” she said.

The woman said she received a phone call at her home one day around 10 a.m. from a man who introduced himself as a ward office worker.

“You likely haven’t applied yet for the refund of about 20,000 yen,” he told her.

The woman mistakenly believed the call had something to do with an inheritance issue she was working out with the ward office.

The caller then gave her instructions in rapid succession.

“Please go to a designated ATM to file for the procedure,” he said. “And please give me a call when you are there.”

The woman phoned the man from an ATM near her home around 20 minutes later. After she was told by the man to take out her cash card, a police officer on the lookout intervened. The line went dead when the police officer took her phone.

“I am afraid many people could be cajoled into sending money,” the woman said. “I want more jammers to be installed.”

Cellphone jammers, like the ones introduced by the MPD, are also used at concert halls and other venues to prevent annoying talking during performances. The devices emit radio waves that make it impossible to have a conversation on a cellphone.

The MPD installed them at the five unmanned ATM sections in October on a trial basis to cut off conversations between scam artists and their targets.

A cellphone jammer costs about 1 million yen per year to maintain.

“We will work to promote the spread of similar contraptions (at financial institutions), which will help protect the precious assets of many customers,” an MPD official said.

COSTS A CONCERN

Some financial institutions and one local government have already introduced devices that disable cellphones in ATM sections. No refund scams have been perpetrated in the areas equipped with this equipment, sources said.

But one financial institution has discontinued the use of the devices because of the high costs.

IO Shinkin Bank, a credit union based in Isesaki, Gunma Prefecture, reduced the expenses by working with two other financial institutions in January 2018 to install a cellphone jammer at an ATM section in the Isesaki city hall.

“The device was introduced jointly by the three companies, which has helped lower the costs,” a bank official said.

Tokyo’s Adachi Ward in July 2019 became the first local government in Japan to introduce such devices. They were installed in seven ATM sections in the ward, and 10 more locations are expected to receive the devices.

Joyo Bank in February 2017 introduced devices that render ATMs unusable when cellphone signals are detected. The bank, based in the Ibaraki prefectural capital of Mito, declined to reveal the number and locations of the devices.

Nobuo Komiya, a professor of criminology with Rissho University, applauded the move to install cellphone-jamming contraptions.

“The measure is both practical and very effective,” Komiya said. “It is certainly costly, but let’s remember that security and peace of mind are never available for free.”

He also called on financial institutions to take action.

“The devices would allow them to accomplish their social mission of preventing scams,” Komiya said. “Doing so would also allow them to demonstrate their willingness to safeguard their clients.”

(This article was written by Nobuaki Tanaka and Hidemasa Yoshizawa.)

HOW TO AVOID REFUND SCAMS

- Don’t take suspicious phone calls. Use answering machines, automatic call recorders, etc.
- Hang up immediately after being told you are entitled to a refund for tax or medical expenses. Call the switchboard number of the municipal government or tax office in question to confirm facts
- Remember that municipal governments, tax offices and similar bodies never ask citizens to go to an ATM to file for refunds

*Source: Metropolitan Police Department